A Republican state representative is urging Governor Bruce Rauner to issue bonds to start paying down the backlog of bills.
Representative David Harris, from Arlington Heights, is one of the Republicans who voted with Democrats to raise taxes and pass a budget. He says the state’s 14-billion dollars in unpaid bills was a big reason why.
“Unless there’s some alternative, then I strongly encourage the governor to take advantage of the borrowing authority that he has and lower those old bills and start eating away at these outrageous interest charges that we have built up."
Illinois’ interest penalty can be as high as 12 percent in some cases.
Harris says the state should be able to use bonds to essentially refinance that debt at a rate closer to 4 percent.
Rauner has not committed to using the bonding authority. On Monday, he said “more borrowing, in and of itself, is not the answer.”
